Popy Oil

All posts tagged Popy Oil

With so much going on these days in Shanghai its easy for, shall we say, the less hardened promoter to have their events lost in the hype of other events in the city and not get the recognition and coverage it deserves. Today and tonight see one of these events, the return of Fukouka’s Oil Works crew to Shanghai, celebrating their 10th anniversary.

Sub-Culture brought Oil Works over in June 2011 for the release of Hamacide’s ‘Might Little Machine’ remix album. This year the crew are celebrating 10 years in the game and so Toru from Boobies Tattoo Studio has brought them over for an exhibition at Kin starting this afternoon and a party at The Shelter this evening.

Yesterday we went over to Idle Beats new studio (which is great by the way) to check out the Popy Oil print they have produced for today’s exhibition. The print. entitled ‘Hello Yello’, comes in various colourways and styles, including hollographic paper and also some great versions on top of old Idle Beats test prints. There are some real beauties in their, all one offs, so id get down to Kin today as soon as possible if you want to grab the best versions. Here’s a few pics of how its looking.

Yesterday evening we also popped in to Kin to say hello to Popy and Zorzi from Oil Works crew and to have a quick preview of the exhibition. A lot of the pieces weren’t yet hung whilst we were there, but we did manage to see a few of the images and they are looking great. They have also brought a whole bunch of really nice Oil Works shirts, cds and vinyl, books and a weird mexican wrestling/gimp mask. Here’s a few pics of what we saw.

The Oil Works exhibition kicks off this afternoon at Kin (64 MaoMing/Yanan) and the big event is at The Shelter tonight (5 YongFu/FaHuaZhen) with Olive Oil (live), Zorzi, 44 (live) from Xiamen and Hamacide. Olive Oil’s live set was fantastic last time and we are very excited to see what he has in store for this 10 year anniversary bash, and we are also very interested in seeing, for the first time in Shangai, 44’s live performance. All of this will be joined by the great visual work of Popy Oil. SO, if you can pull yourself away from all the hype, come down to Shelter tonight and experience some serious quality live electronic music and visuals.

In July, Sub Culture were privileged to host the pre-release party of Hamacide’s forthcoming remix album on Japan’s Oil Works label. After a couple of minor delays, the vinyl version of the LP is due to be released at the end of the month and a preview of the tracks and art work (designed by Popy Oil) has just surfaced online. The 12″ vinyl comprises of 6 of the 18 tracks from the CD album (and 20 tracks digital) due for release shortly after, including remixes from Prefuse 73, Olive Oil, Himuro Yoshiteru and Hamacide himself. Hamacide will be performing live at Live House Pangea in Osaka, Japan on Saturday 27th August and hopefully he’ll bring a bunch of the 12’s back with him so hopefully all you Shanghai heads can grab a copy at the end of the month.

The Oilworks crew touched down in Shanghai yesterday and are more than ready to bring some seriously good music to The Shelter tonight. Along side sets from Olive Oil and DJ Zorzi, Popy Oil, who is also the designer of this month’s Sub-Culture poster, will be on visual controls. We caught up with Popy to ask him a few quick questions about his work.

Live visuals from Popy Oil

Sub-Culture: First of all, please introduce yourself. How long have you been an artist? How did it start?

Popy Oil: I was born in 1980 in Tokunoshima, Japan. Currently, I live in Fukuoka, Japan. I started skating in 1994 and it sparked my interest in street culture. I started designing around 1998. In 2002, we started Oilworks, and that was when I began work as an artist.

SC: You and your brother, OliveOil, started Oil Works. Please can you tell us a bit more about Oil Works. Who is involved? What do you do?

PO: 2002: With my older brother Olive Oil who was DJing and producing music, I started doing design/filmmaking. If we wanted to show people our art, we had to start our own label and put on our own events. Now, DJ Zorzi is part of the production team and is in charge of distribution among other things. We have other staff members as well.We not only put out our own work, but also music by producers such as ichiro, BUN, and RLP. There are a total of about 32 musicians and visual artists that we will release on a compilation DVD. We do not limited ourselves to Fukuoka. We put on an event called Oilworks Technics in other regions such as Tokyo and Osaka. I am in charge of the design and art direction of these events. There are an increasing number of label/brands in Japan now.

Sub-Culture poster by Popy Oil – First layer

SC: What do you use to create your art work? Do you produce mainly canvases and digital work or do you also take your art to the streets?

PO: I use just about anything, but my main thing is my Mac. I am doing more work on canvas but the majority of my work is still digital.

SC: What was your inspiration behind the Sub-Culture poster? What is the image about?

PO: A little while ago, I started doing a series of illustrations based on children playing. Around that time, the Fukushima nuclear meltdown happened, and I tried to express what was going on in something other than in words. So I sort of “remixed” the children playing series. A different version of this image is used as the cover design of Olive Oil’s latest mix “HUMAN or HIGHer”.

Sub-Culture poster by Popy Oil – Close up

SC: How is the art scene in Japan these days? Are there any other artists we should look out for?

PO: I think the art scene and artists in Japan are thriving right now, but I don’t think there are enough places and opportunities for artists to display their work yet. There are many artists that you should look at for. There are a lot more artists who are working independently now, and I think a lot of interesting work will come out of that.

SC: You also VJ. What software/hardware do you use? What should we expect from your performance at The Shelter?

PO: This time, I will use (KORG/Kaptivator) x (EDIROL/V4Mixer) x (MacBook/Pixplayer/Motion) x (Camera x1、2) x (KORG/ENTRANCER) + α for my live VJ set. You can look forward to a kind of jam session with Oilworks Sound.

Sub-Culture poster by Popy Oil – Final layer drying on the rack

As always, Popy’s Sub-Culture screenprint, along side past Sub-Culture posters, will be on sale at the back of the dancefloor tonight at the Idle Beats shop. Oilworks have also bought a whole bunch of stuff to sell (t-shirts, vinyl, cds, artwork) so make sure you bring down a bit of extra cash and go home with something nice 🙂

On Friday 24th June, Sub-Culture are proud to be hosting the pre-release party for Shanghai based beat-smith Hamacide’s ‘Might Little Machine’ remix album. The evening will feature special guests Olive Oil, Popy Oil and Zorzi AKA Oil Works straight from Fukuoka, Japan and over the next few weeks we will be introducing each of these artists in more detail (remember to download this killer mix from Zorzi), but right now lets get to know a bit more about the main man of the night, Yusuke Hama AKA Hamacide!

Hamacide – Touch The Blue Owl with Jared Turinsky (taken from the album ‘Mighty Little Machine’)

Hamacide is the alias of Yusuke Hama, an Atlanta-born, New York producer/dj. Son of Japanese parents, Yusuke, like many Asian kids, started playing classical music at a very young age. Eventually quitting his classical music pursuits in his mid teens, he started playing in bands and making his own 4 track recordings.

In 2007, Yusuke released a record under the name LEYODE with fellow Brooklyn singer Laurel Wells. It was titled ‘Fascinating Tininess…’ and was released on Guillermo Scott Herren’s (Prefuse 73) label, Eastern Developments. Even though Yusuke and Laurel lived only a few minutes away from each other, they never worked in the same room together. The record was created entirely via file transfer. Laurel would layer vocal harmonies using her laptop mic and send it to Yusuke. This back and forth process would continue until they finalized a song by recording it in Yusuke’s kitchen. Yusuke describes the sounds of heavy beats, samples and addicting vocal melodies and harmonies that make up “Fascinating tininess…” as “dirty-south, film-score pop”

Hamacide – Mighty Little Machine

In 2010, Yusuke released his first full length solo record called Mighty Little Machine. Beautiful and, at times, bizarre, Mighty Little Machine is a collection of instrumentals and vocal-based songs with elements of hip-hop, classical, folk, and bossa nova. Mighty Little Machine blends many styles of music but Yusuke’s production keeps everything cohesive and making perfect sense. It is a carefully constructed record that flows seamlessly from beginning to end.

Later in 2010, Yusuke asked his friends Prefuse 73, Leblaze and Epstein to remix songs from Mighty Little Machine for a possible remix EP. Not until he met Himuro Yoshiteru in Shanghai, China did this idea become reality. Yusuke immediately fell in love with Himuro’s music who then introduced him to Olive Oil and other amazing Japanese producers. Originally an EP, the Mighty Little Machine remix project has now bloomed into a full album and its release is imminent. Released on Japan’s Oil Works imprint, a 12″ vinyl sampler featuring remixes by Prefuse 73, Olive Oil, Himuro Yoshitero, Epstein, Leb Laze and Hamacide himself will precede the full length CD album which will drop about a month later. The CD will contain all the tracks from the 12″ plus 10 more remixes by artists such as Daisuke Tanabe, Zorzi, Caliph8 and a collaboration between Hamacide and Demon Slayer. The album will also feature some fantastic artwork by Oil Work’s Popy Oil.

To celebrate the imminent release of the Mighty Little Machine Remix album, for a very limited time Hamacide has made both the original Mighty Little Machine LP and the Leyode LP available for free download! Shoot over to his bandcamp site here and get downloading, but make sure you come down to The Shelter on Friday 24th June and show your appreciation 🙂

Big thanks to everyone who made it out last Saturday for Addison Groove. It was a fantastic night and Addison absolutely smashed it with a 3 hour set spanning everything from Moombahton and House to Dubstep, Juke and Drum and Bass!

The next Sub-Culture session is on Friday 24th June and we will be joined by special guests OIL WORKS (Olive Oil, Popy Oil and DJ Zorzi) from Japan to celebrate the pre-release of HAMACIDE’s ‘Mighty Little Machine’ remix LP!